There are many situations in which a fluid is transmitted through a network of pipes. Often this fluid is transmitted under pressure. These pipes are, of course, not a unitary piece of pipe, but are comprised of many individual pipes connected together. These connections are usually under pressure from the fluid being transmitted by the pipes. To resist this pressure and to prevent the connections from leaking, the connections are surrounded by packing glands that usually include a ring of packing material pressed against the pipes. However, these packing glands are frequently improperly installed and even if the packing glands are properly installed, the packing material wears out over time. Frequently, when either of these events occur, the fluid escapes the connection and packing gland and either flows down the pipes if the pipes have a significant vertical direction or drips off the pipes if the pipes are primarily horizontal.
Often the pipes carrying the liquid under pressure lead into a gear box or other mechanical apparatus having moving parts. If the fluid that escaped the connection flows along the pipe, it may end up in the gear box or on the other mechanical apparatus. The fluid may be a corrosive, or a fluid which hardens over time (e.g. a mortar), such that the fluid damages the gear box and other mechanical apparatus that it contacts.
One particular piece of equipment which employs a pipe network and connection as described above is a vertical earth auger boring unit having a shaft running down the center of the auger for feeding grout into the hole dug by the boring unit. Thus, as the auger is removed, the grout is fed down the center of the auger filling the hole to form a pile. The boring unit is basically comprised of a gearbox having an elongated auger protruding downward therefrom. The boring unit is lifted by a crane above the spot where the hole is to be dug and is held in place by the crane during the digging of the hole. The auger is operated such that a vertical hole is dug. As the auger is removed from the hole by the crane, grout is fed down the center shaft of the auger under pressure. The grout fills up the hole and when hardened, forms a concrete pile.
To feed grout into the center shaft, a grout input pipe is provided which leads from a source of the grout to a vertical pipe in the gearbox. The connection of the input pipe with the vertical pipe usually occurs on the top of the gearbox. It is this type of connection, the connection of the grout input pipe to the vertical pipe which is a typical environment in which this invention is practiced. Currently, these connections are provided with a single packing gland to prevent grout from escaping the connection and flowing into the gearbox. If the packing glands now available for use with this type connection fail, the escaping grout gets by the packing glands and sometimes runs down along the pipes into the gearbox. When the grout hardens, the gears within the gearbox are usually ruined.
The operator of the equipment as described above does not have any warning that the packing gland is failing since the grout is not in his view before it gets into the gearbox. Thus, the first signal to the operator that something is wrong is when the machine breaks down due to grout on the gears.
From the above, it is apparent that there exists a need in the art for a connection assembly, for connecting two pipes transmitting fluid, designed such that grout escaping past a packing gland of the connection assembly is prevented by other components of the connection assembly from flowing along the pipe, and which provides a warning signal to the operator of the equipment embodying the connection assembly that the packing gland has failed. It is the purpose of this invention to fulfill this need and other needs in the art apparent to the skilled artisan based on the following disclosure: